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When God is With Us

Unit 4 / Lesson 5

When God is With Us

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Teacher's Prep

  • Games

    • Captain's Coming

    • Electricity

      • Watch this instructional video before the lesson (about 3 minutes long)

      • You will need an object to grab, like a stuffed animal or a paper cup. It is probably best if this object is on a chair, so people don't bump heads while reaching down.

    • Drawing with Limited Crayons

      • Materials:

        • Two crayons per child

        • One sheet of paper per two children

    • Main Activity

      • Option A: Mother's Day cards

        • Get supplies to make fancy Mother's Day Cards

      • Option B: Kites

        • Watch this video for how to make a kite

        • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mc3AUuuj9_I

        • You will want to streamline the process for efficient kite construction. Maybe the class could make an assembly line for making various steps of the kite.

  • Note About Lesson Timing

    • This lesson is a bit longer than some others, so you will want to be conscious of time throughout the lesson. You may want to shorten some games, or abbreviate the discussion times (perhaps children can discuss with a partner for a minute instead of getting up to form discussion groups)


    Intro

    SLIDE 1

  • Gathering

    • How was your week?

    SLIDE 2

  • Intro Activity: Captain's Coming

    • Instructions

      • Let's start with a game of Captain's Coming!

      • Teacher: play this video to help students get familiar with the rules of Captain's Coming

      • Sample Phrases

        • BOW: shipmates race to the front of the room

        • STERN: shipmates run to the back of the room

        • STARBOARD: shipmates run to the right of the room

        • PORT: shipmates run to the left of the room

        • CAPTAIN'S COMING: shipmates stand at attention, salute, and say, "Aye aye, Captain!"

        • SCRUB THE DECK: shipmates mime scrubbing on hands and knees or with a mop

        • CLIMB THE RIGGING: shipmates pretend to climb a rope ladder

        • MAN THE LIFEBOAT: shipmates find a partner and hold both hands together

        • SHARK ATTACK: shipmates lie on their backs with their feet up

        • FREEZE: shipmates stop all actions and can't continue until the captain says, "Unfreeze"

    SLIDE 3

    • Debrief

      • In the game we just played, a lot of times we're just doing our own thing. But, sometimes we need a partner, or else we won’t make it.

      • That's what the Christian life is like sometimes. A lot of times, we're just doing our own thing and we're doing fine, but sometimes we need help.

      • Sometimes the only person who can help us is God.

    SLIDE 4

  • Relevance

    • Thankfully, God has promised that He will be with us if we are doing His work.

    • If you know how to depend on God, you'll be more powerful and less worried, no matter what happens.

    SLIDE 5

  • Big Question

    • Our big question today is:

    • What happens when God is with us?

    SLIDE 6

  • Big Idea

    • We'll see in our Bible story that:

    • God gives us power, but God also gives us problems

    SLIDE 7

  • Bible Reference


    Point 1

    SLIDE 8

  • Our first point is, when God is with us, He gives us power

    SLIDE 9

  • Game: Electricity

    • Instructions

      • Let's start this point with a game called "Electricity."

      • We will be holding hands, and when someone squeezes your hand, you pass the squeeze on to the next person.

      • Let's see how it works

      • Teacher: play the first 1:30 of this video:

      • Teacher: While the video is playing, set up a chair at one end of the room with an easily grabbed object (e.g. paper cup, plastic water bottle, or stuffed animal)

      • The first thing you need to do is find a partner! You and your partner will go on opposite teams.

      • Your teams will line up, so that I can squeeze your hand on one end, and you will be able to grab the object at the other end.

      • If you're the first team to grab the object, your team wins the round. But, if I don't squeeze and you grab the object anyway, the OTHER team wins the round. You need to be careful to only pass the squeeze when your hand has been squeezed.

      • Teacher: play several rounds. After each round, the person in front goes to the back of the line, and they grab the object. Everyone will have a chance to be at the front and back of the line. If one team is consistently winning, you may want to add people to the fast team, because more people on a team makes for a slower signal. Or, you may want to shuffle the teams.

    SLIDE 10

    • Debrief

      • We played this game because it helps us understand our Bible story. In our story, the disciples were helping people to know Jesus, and those other people were helping even more people to know Jesus. It's kind of like passing the squeeze along, but instead they were passing the message about Jesus.

      • Just like in the game, Jesus’ message needed to go out fast, and it needed to go out properly.

      • God gave the disciples power so they could share the message.

    SLIDE 11

  • Bible Reference

    • Let's read what God did for the disciples.

    • Acts 5:17-20, (ICB)

      • 17 The high priest and all his friends (a group called the Sadducees) became very jealous. 18 They took the apostles and put them in jail. 19 But during the night, an angel of the Lord opened the doors of the jail. He led the apostles outside and said, 20 “Go and stand in the Temple. Tell the people everything about this new life.” 

    SLIDE 12

  • Explanation

    • It must have been fun being a disciple sometimes. They were healing people from all kinds of sicknesses. Even when the disciples were put in jail, God sent an angel to get them out of jail.

    • God helped the disciples so they could tell more people about the new life that Jesus gave us.

    SLIDE 13

    • We have to remember that God wasn't just giving power to anyone; He was giving power to the people who were doing His work.

    • People really needed to hear about Jesus quickly and in the right way, so God gave the disciples special help.

    • However, God doesn’t always give His people special help. Even in the Bible, God’s people did a lot of things the normal way with no miracles. God uses ordinary things to do great work, too.

    SLIDE 14

  • Application

    • It's like that for us too. Right before Jesus went to heaven, Jesus promised all of us that He will be with us if we are doing His work. If we are helping people to know Him, He will help us.

    • Sometimes, God does amazing miracles! Even today, there are stories that are so amazing that no one can explain what happened except to say, “God helped us.”

    • Miracles like that are rare. You might see one or two miracles like that in your lifetime. Most of the time, God helps us in ordinary ways, just giving us what we need in the moment. A lot of times, we don't need a miracle. We just need to obey God, do our best, and God will do amazing things with us.

    SLIDE 15

  • Discussion Question

    • Let's pause for a discussion question.

    • Do you have any ideas for helping people to find new life with Jesus?


    Point 2

    SLIDE 16

  • Our second point is, when God is with us, He gives us problems.

    SLIDE 17

  • Activity: Drawing with Limited Crayons

    • Instructions

      • Let's start this point with a game. You'll each have a partner, and each get two crayons. You'll use those crayons to draw some pictures together. 

      • I'll tell you what to draw, and then you'll have three minutes to draw it. You'll want to work together on the same piece of paper.

      • Everyone find a partner, and then I'll give you some crayons and a piece of paper.

      • Teacher: pass out two crayons per child, and a piece of paper for each group of two.

      • Our first picture is: an aquarium. 

      • Teacher: wait 3 minutes for the children to draw.

      • Time's up, let's flip over our piece of paper and draw a second picture.

        • Teacher: some groups may need another piece of paper

      • Our second picture is: a city.

      • Teacher: wait 3 minutes for the children to draw.

      • Alright let’s all sit in a circle so we can see each other

      • Now, let's have each group show their favorite drawing.

      • Teacher: ask questions about the drawings and praise their artwork.

    SLIDE 18

    • Debrief

      • We played this game because you all had to deal with a problem -- you didn't have all the colors you wanted! Because you didn't have all the colors you wanted, you got more creative, and you worked together.

    SLIDE 19

    • As it turns out, not all problems are bad for us. They might feel bad, and we might wish the problem went away. God uses problems for all kinds of good reasons. Problems bring us together, and they help us to get smarter and stronger. That's what we see in our Bible story. Let's read the end, right after Jesus’ disciples got beaten up. 

    SLIDE 20

  • Bible Reference

    • Acts 5:41-42, (ICB)

      • 41 The apostles left the Sanhedrin, rejoicing because they had been counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the Name. 42 Day after day, in the temple courts and from house to house, they never stopped teaching and proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Messiah. 

    SLIDE 21

  • Explanation

    • It must have really hurt when the apostles got beaten up. On the inside, they were excited and celebrating, because they knew what this meant. They knew that God had chosen them in a special way, and that God was doing something so great, it would make their trouble look like nothing.

    SLIDE 22

    • Jesus had taught them:

      •  Matthew 5:11-12, (CEV)

      • 11God will bless you when people insult you, mistreat you, and tell all kinds of evil lies about you because of me. 12  Be happy and excited! You will have a great reward in heaven. People did these same things to the prophets who lived long ago.

    SLIDE 23

  • Application

    • That's how it works for us too. God doesn't always make things easy for us. Sometimes we do everything right, and we still get into trouble and run into problems. We need to remember that every time we run into a problem, God is doing something good with it. He could have fixed the problem for us, but He doesn’t because He is using the problem to help us.

    SLIDE 24

    • Whenever you run into a problem, don't give up. Instead, you can ask, “what can I learn from this? How can I get stronger? What kind of treasure can I find because God let me have this problem?”

    • You can ask these questions because God is with you, and He only gives us problems because they are worth the trouble.

    SLIDE 25

  • Discussion Question

    • What is a problem that you are dealing with right now?

    • How might God use this problem in a good way?


    Conclusion

    SLIDE 26

  • Let's wrap up this lesson by going over our big ideas again.

  • Our big question today was: what happens when God is with us?

  • We saw in our Bible story that God gives us power. Sometimes God does miracles, and other times He makes things work in a quiet way. Either way, He gives us power so that we can help people to know Jesus.

  • We also saw that God gives us problems. Problems can be a good thing! Every time you run into a problem, God is doing something good with that problem. We can always trust that everything will work out fine in the end, and we can use that problem to work together and to get stronger and wiser.


    Main Activity: (Mother’s Day Cards or Kites)

  • Option A: Cards

    • Now it's time for our main activity! Today we are making Mother's Day cards! Many of us have moms who are amazing. Some children don't have moms like that, but God gives us other people to take care of us. If you don't have a mom to give a card to, you can give it to someone else who takes care of you.

    • Moms help us understand our lesson today because moms are a bit like God. When our moms are with us, they can help us with all kinds of things that we couldn't do alone. But, moms don't do everything for us. Sometimes a mom will let us face a problem all by ourselves. She could fix the problem, but she doesn't because she knows it's good for us if we learn to solve the problem ourselves. Moms are great that way, and we can show our appreciation by making a fancy card for them.

    • Teacher: lead in card making.

    SLIDE 27

  • Option B: Kites

    • Now it's time for our main activity! Today we are making kites! Kites remind us of what it's like to work with God. We are all like kites, and God is like the wind. He is invisible, but He's powerful, and He helps us to do all kinds of things we couldn't do on our own.

    • Teacher: lead in kite making.



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